


Beads

by lilyoftheshadow



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Tricksy Fortunetellers, valentines day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29586009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyoftheshadow/pseuds/lilyoftheshadow
Summary: “Explain yourself,” he demanded, and the woman cocked her head to the side.“I have the Sight,” she said simply. “I came to help you and your wife.”“I’m not married,” he bit out. Her smile didn’t falter.“Not yet, of course. That’s where I come in.”
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Hatake Kakashi
Comments: 24
Kudos: 126





	Beads

There wasn’t much new in the city that Kakashi hadn’t seen before, but the young woman sitting on a blanket, surrounded by crystals and beads and herbs, was definitely new. She looked up at him from behind thick, round glasses and smiled.

Her teeth were too white, too even.

“Hatake-san,” she greeted brightly. Kakashi’s eyes narrowed.

“You have me at a disadvantage,” he said coolly.

“I have everyone at a disadvantage,” the young woman replied, waving it off easily with a flourished twirl of her hand. “Sit down,” she gestured to the cushion in front of her. Kakashi remained stubbornly standing. “I knew you wouldn’t, but I figured I’d offer,” she added after a beat. “But you’re going to want to in a while, so know the invitation stands when you’re ready.”

Kakashi snorted, then turned and walked away.

“Watch out for the paint!” she called after him. Kakashi ignored her, continuing on his stroll towards the Hokage tower. He was in sight of it when he caught a whiff of something on the wind.

Turpentine and paint.

There was a shout above him, and he flash-stepped to the other side of the street just in time to see a can of paint topple off a stack and crash into the pavement, splattering blue everywhere.

Kakashi stared at it for a moment as the workers up above hollered an apology and asked if he was okay.

Without acknowledging them, he turned around and stalked back to the market where the woman and the blanket had been, noticeably leaking angry ki and parting the few civilians on the street like a shark through a school of fish.

She was meditating with her eyes closed and her fingers worrying over a string of beads, but when he sat down heavily on the cushion, she opened them and beamed.

“Hatake-san, welcome back,” she chirped.

“Explain yourself,” he demanded, and the woman cocked her head to the side.

“I have the Sight,” she said simply. “I came to help you and your wife.”

“I’m not married,” he bit out. Her smile didn’t falter.

“Not yet, of course. That’s where I come in.”

Kakashi fixed her with a hard stare, but his intimidating ki seemed to just sweep over her.

After a long silence, Kakashi’s eye narrowed further.

“What are you?”

“I just told you. Are you ready to listen or not?” the woman continued, unperturbed.

There was another silence.

“Who do I marry, then?”

“Well, it’s no fun if I just tell you, is it?” she said, cocking her head to the side. She held out the string of beads she had been playing with.

“Take these with you. They’ll lead you to her. And don’t listen to that little voice inside you saying you’re too old; it’s lying and your children are adorable.”

“I don’t want children.”

“You want her children. And she wants yours,” the woman winked. Kakashi snorted, then stood back up.

“I suggest you leave the city,” he said, “before I have ANBU escort you out.”

The woman waved without another word, still beaming, and Kakashi stalked off, realizing halfway down the street that he was still holding the string of beads.

With a sound of disgust, he dropped them in the gutter and kept going.

.

.

.

It was a few days before Kakashi thought of the woman again, and he only did so with a stab of horror when he laid eyes on the string of beads, still laying in the gutter where he had left them days earlier. His eye narrowed at them, noting that any other trash around them had been swept up. The beads remained, however.

He skirted around them and kept on his way, pushing it out of his mind.

.

.

.

It was another few days later when he was on the same route, strolling along reading, when a flash of blue caught his eye.

His lips pursed into a frown as he saw the beads. The gutter was muddy from the rain the day previous, but the beads seemed to sit on top of the mud, not entirely unblemished but certainly not as dirty as they should have been.

He kept walking, his jaw clenched in inexplicable fury.

.

.

.

He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the strange fortune teller since he told her to leave town, and could only assume that she had done so. Nevertheless, he now avoided that street like the plague, despite it being a part of the most efficient route between his apartment and the Hokage tower.

It wasn’t until he was late for a meeting and someone was sent to fetch him, weeks later, that he traveled down that street once more.

“Honestly, Kakashi,” Sakura groaned as she basically frog-marched him down the road. “It’s not that hard to be on time, especially not for a mission report like this. You  _ do _ have your—what are you staring at?”

Sakura stopped when he did, frozen in his tracks as his eyes locked on to a string of blue beads in the gutter of the street. Sakura was surprised by the sudden wave of killing intent that escaped when he saw them. She followed his gaze and found the beads, before crossing the street to pick them up out of the gutter.

“These?” she asked, clearly confused. Kakashi stared at her in horror as something became clear to him. It was like when he first opened his Sharingan after Sakura had worked on it and things were suddenly clear when he hadn’t thought they were unclear in the first place.

He flash-stepped several streets over and  _ fled_.

.

.

.

_ “Kakashi-sensei, if you fail to report in for a post-mission checkup one more time, I will personally drag you to the hospital and  _ admit _ you. This is absurd,” Sakura lectured as she wrapped his bicep, where a mildly poisoned kunai had turned a shallow cut into an infected mess that Kakashi had evidently seen fit to hide for three days before she noticed him favoring the arm during a spar. _

_ “Maa, Sakura-chan, there’s no need for that,” he protested. “It’s just a scratch.” _

_ “It’s two days away from full-blow gangrene!” Sakura protested, flicking his ear with enough force that it stung. Kakashi flinched away from her, but she kept a firm hold on his arm, which didn’t budge. Kakashi didn’t have a response for that, however, and offered her the crinkled eye of what he meant to be a reassuring smile. Sakura frowned at him, however. _

_ “Kakashi, you can’t let something stupid like this take you out,” she added. “You have  _ got _ to take better care of yourself!” _

_ Kakashi felt inexplicably warm, but also rather chastised. _

_ “I’ll try, Sakura,” he said consolingly. Sakura harrumphed. _

_ “You better,” she grumbled, her gentle fingers not matching the gruffness in her voice as she finished pinning the bandage and pat it. Kakashi winced at the touch, and Sakura snorted. “Serves you right,” she muttered, gathering up her supplies as she stood to go. “Get some rest. I’ll bring over dinner.” _

.

.

.

He reached the edge of the village, scaling the wall and waving absently to the wall guards, who didn’t bother to try to stop the Copy-Nin. This happened far too often, although they were indeed somewhat perturbed by the roiling chakra that was almost visible on him as he vanished into the woods.

“Give him til sundown before we report that,” Kotetsu said to the junior who he noticed picked up a radio to call it in. The junior frowned, but nodded.

“Yes, sir,” he said warily. Kotetsu shook his head and snorted, before resuming patrol.

Kakashi, meanwhile, flew through the trees unabated.

.

.

.

_ The smell of grilled saury reached his nose before he was fully awake, and he groaned as he stretched out on his bed, feeling Sakura’s presence in the kitchen. She had crashed on his couch, he remembered, after too-long of a shift. She had appeared on his balcony, eyes rimmed in red, and he had opened the window without a word. _

_ “Hey,” she said, her voice a little wobbly. _

_ “Hey,” he returned, closing the window behind her. She settled herself on the couch, dropping her bags next to the armrest and pulling her knees up to her chest. _

_ Without further discussion, Kakashi made her a mug of tea and set it on the coffee table in front of her, before sitting on the other end of the couch with a book. _

_ The silence persisted for maybe a half hour, with Kakashi cautiously ignoring her occasional sniffles. _

_ When she finally seemed to be calmed down enough to have a conversation, she picked up her now lukewarm tea and began sipping it quietly. _

_ “Inzuka Hana’s ninken,” she said after a long quiet. “The triplets?” she added, in case Kakashi wasn’t familiar. He was, and he nodded. “One of them... Akira. He didn’t make it.” _

_ Kakashi was quiet, although Sakura knew she had his full attention. _

_ “Hana was unconscious, and we couldn’t get another Inuzuka vet to the hospital in time,” she added. “She was still out when Tsunade sent me home. She doesn't know yet.” _

_ Kakashi remained quiet, but stretched out one leg to stick his toes under Sakura’s thigh. She gave a small huff that passed for a laugh in this situation, and a thin smile, before returning to her tea. _

_ It was another hour when Sakura sighed deeply, and Kakashi noticed that the droop in her posture that had been growing through the quiet had reached the point of no return. He carefully stood up and took her cup from her. She protested softly, but he shook his head, pulling her vest off her shoulders and putting it down by their feet. He then pushed her against the throw pillow, and as soon as she sunk into the cushions the fight bled out of her. _

_ He pulled a blanket out of a basket, shaking it to make sure there was minimal dog hair on it, then draped it over her. _

_ She hummed softly as she snuggled into it, her brow still a little furrowed. He brushed her hair out of her face and stared down at her for a long moment, clearly already asleep, clearly still troubled. He sighed and went to drop onto his own bed, having been ready to sleep before her arrival in the first place. _

_ And now, she was awake in his kitchen, preparing breakfast. _

_ He went to the bathroom first to wake himself up properly, then padded out to the kitchen where he found her standing by the stove, bowls of rice already on the table. She turned just far enough to catch his eye and smiled wanly. Kakashi didn’t mention the still red-rimmed eyes as he sat down at the table. _

_ “You didn’t have to,” he said as he watched her plate the fish and bring it over. _

_ “I wanted to. Thanks for being there for me,” she added, dropping a quick kiss on the top of his head. “I appreciate it.” _

_ Kakashi raised an eyebrow, but she simply brought her own plate over, murmured a quiet “let’s eat,” and dug into her food, keeping her still-sleepy eyes trained on her food instead of trying to sneak looks at Kakashi’s face as her team did in their youth. _

.

.

.

Before he realized where he was, Kakashi was several kilometres out from the village at the top of one of the thinking trees he frequented as a teen, when he wasn’t at the cenotaph.

He stared over the sea of trees, the deep green reminding him of Sakura’s eyes in dimly lit bars and restaurants when the team got together. He closed his eyes and shook his head violently to dislodge the thought.

Absolutely not.

It was absurd.

Ridiculous.

The seer woman didn’t know anything, and it wasn’t like the beads  _ led  _ to Sakura. She just picked them up after he threw them out... and they remained untouched for two months in the gutter.

.

.

.

_ Kakashi stood in line, casually emanating an aura that kept most of the civilians from getting too close. _

_ “I don’t know why I didn’t look here first,” Sakura snorted, shaking her head as she sidled up next to him, uncaring of her line-cut. _

_ “Maa, Sakura, I could have been anywhere,” he said. “It’s not like i’m here for the release.” _

_ “Not like you’re here for the release,” Sakura repeated, deadpan, as she looked at his place smack in the middle of the line, reasonably close to the front even. _

_ “Well, everyone in the know, knows that this is a new author taking over the series,” Kakashi said, and Sakura caught the undertone of pain in his statement. She allowed herself a moment of sadness in remembrance, before shaking her head. _

_ “I’ve heard the new author does the original quite a bit of justice.” _

_ “As have I,” Kakashi said idly, glancing up when the store employee ahead of them turned the sign from “Closed” to “Open” and the line surged inside. _

_ For ‘not being in line,’ Kakashi moved rather smoothly with the flow of the group, Sakura hanging out beside him, leafing through her own book as Kakashi was immersed in his old standby copy of Icha Icha Paradise. After a moment, he looked up curiously. _

_ “What  _ are _ you doing here?” he asked finally. _

_ “Just supporting a friend,” she said casually, flipping a page. Kakashi caught a glance over her shoulder, catching a bare snippet of text before Sakura pressed the open pages to her chest and stuck out her tongue. _

_ “Nosy,” she scolded. Kakashi cocked his head, grinning shamelessly. _

_ “I’d almost think you were here in your own interests, not just supporting a friend,” he teased. Sakura flushed lightly, but quickly tamped it down. _

_ “Am not!” she protested hotly before she coughed and closed her book, straightening primly. _

_ Kakashi’s grin widened, and he nodded sagely. _

_ “Of course not, Blossom-chan,” he said sagely, invoking the titular character of  _ Blossom’s Garden _, which she quickly stuffed into her jacket, eyes wide. _

_ “Kakashi!” she gasped, and he laughed. _

.

.

.

He stayed in the tree for a long time, turning over in his head every encounter he’d had with Sakura in the last few years.

When the sky started to streak with oranges, purples, and...

Pinks.

Kakashi sighed and slumped against the trunk.

That damned clairvoyant-witch-seer person had a point, and now that he thought about it, Sakura had wormed her way so far into his life that the leap from partner to  _ partner _ was less of a leap than a stumble.

A part of him protested that he had never thought of her  _ that _ way, and that a sexless relationship just wasn’t for him, but he immediately responded to himself with the image of her strong thighs carrying her from tree to tree as they traveled, the flex of her bicep as she reared back for an openly telegraphed but still unavoidable punch, and the sway of the rare skirt she wore when she was working in the hospital, and he cursed aloud.

He slowly hopped down through the branches and walked back to the village on foot, his mind spinning.

By the time he reached the gates, he had concluded that, even if he did find her attractive, even if he might be able to imagine a life together... (The flash of pink and silver haired children had shocked and horrified him, by virtue of the fact that horror wasn’t his  _ first _ reaction—anticipation was.)

It meant nothing, since Sakura didn’t return his feelings, whatever they were.

He strolled into the gates just before the guards were heaving them closed for the night, waving casually to Kotetsu who had made his way to the main gate for the shift change.

He was flanked by ANBU the moment he entered the village, however, and after glancing between them, Kakashi sighed.

“What?” he asked wearily.

“Hokage-sama requested you for a meeting  _ seven hours ago_,” Cat said. Kakashi groaned. “This might be a record for lateness, but she still needs to see you and now she is furious  _ and _ drunk.”

Kakashi trudged between them to his now-much-belated meeting, his mind unable to focus on the upcoming reaming he would receive from the Hokage, stuck as he was on her apprentice.

.

.

.

One week of C-rank missions were his punishment, but he was almost glad for the mindless distraction of minor courier duties. He ran messages to the outposts several days in a row, to most of the outposts bemusement. It kept him out of the village, and since he read while running, he was able to keep his mind off of  _ her_, until his assignment took him to Outpost G to the southwest of the village.

He handed over a bundle of mail to the man who hollered back into the outpost.

“Haruno! Mail!”

Kakashi’s attention snapped to focus, shocked until the person emerging from the office was definitely  _ not _ Sakura.

An older man, his pink hair streaked with grey, grinned at him.

“Hatake-san! You’re on mail runs?” he asked curiously, taking the bundle of mail and flipping through it.

“Yes, sir,” Kakashi replied. Haruno-san’s face lit up when he reached one letter, his face lighting up.

“Would you mind waiting just a few minutes before taking the return mail so I can read this and reply?” he waved the letter he had just opened. Kakashi shrugged. “Sakura-chan talks about you all the time; any chance you could take it directly to her?” he asked with a wink. Kakashi straightened and Haruno laughed.

“I know, I know, protocol,” he shook his head. “Just give me a little bit here, if you don’t mind.”

“I’ll be here,” Kakashi shrugged, slumping against the wall.

“You can have a seat if you want,” the nin at the watchtower said. Kakashi shook his head.

“Nah,” he said dismissively, eliciting shrug in reply. Kakashi couldn’t be bothered to worry about what the watchman did or said—he was too busy wrapping his mind around the fact that Sakura talked about him to her father, evidently.

He didn’t read a single word in the hour that he stood there.

“Thanks for waiting,” Haruno said, sliding a newly sealed envelope into the return bundle for Kakashi to take back to the village. “Give Sakura a hug for me, won’t you?” he said.

At Kakashi’s stricken look, he gave a booming laugh, clapped him on the shoulder, and turned back into the office as he waved over his shoulder.

The watch-nin shrugged and waved him off, and Kakashi turned and ran from the outpost, although he’d never admit to being shaken.

.

.

.

He determinedly put it out of his mind, and decidedly did not pass along Sakura’s father’s hug. It was another week of avoiding Sakura before she made it impossible to continue.

She arrived at his window, a red box in her hand and a moderately irked expression on her face.

He opened the window for her and she slipped inside, dropping the red box on the coffee table and stalking to the kitchen to make tea.

Kakashi trailed after her, frowning at the package that looked suspiciously like a box of chocolates. She blew out a long, angry breath as the kettle clattered against the stove and the gas clicked on.

There was a pause, before Kakashi ventured, “So...?”

“If one more  _ man _ thinks for  _ one more second _ that because I have to stick my  _ fingers up his ass _ for a prostrate exam means that I’m  _ into him_, I will  _ fucking SCREAM_.”

“...ah,” Kakashi grimaced scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Sakura threw a scroll at him, which he caught deftly.

“There’s the rest of them. That one,” she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the box on the coffee table, “was just the one that caught me on my way out of the office.”

Kakashi unraveled the scroll and saw no less than six gifts sealed into it.

“The third one from the front is wine; unseal it. I’m not above  _ accepting _ the gifts,” she added wryly, pulling teabags out of the cupboard. Kakashi spread the scroll on the kitchen table and proceeded to unseal the wine she indicated, holding up the bottle to examine the label. It wasn’t a cheap bottle, either.

He looked up at Sakura as she turned around to lean against the counter as the tea steeped.

His eyes started to sweep down her form but caught sharply on the string of beads at her throat.

Sakura frowned, then followed his gaze.

“What is it with these?” she asked, bringing a hand to her throat. “They’re pretty, once I cleaned them up a little. No seals or anything on them either, I checked.”

“It’s... nothing,” Kakashi turned to the cabinet behind him to pull out glasses for the wine. Sakura turned and pulled the corkscrew from the drawer and passed it over to him, then carried the tea to the coffee table while he followed with the wine. She flipped the lid off of the box before she sunk into the couch and plucked out a chocolate, taking a sip of her tea before accepting the glass of wine.

Once she settled, followed the chocolate with a hearty sip of wine, and let her head drop back onto the couch, she let out a long, deep breath and stilled.

Kakashi cautiously joined her on the couch, his eyes finally making it past the beads at her throat to take in the rest of her outfit in shades of blue that complimented the beads. She was wearing a skirt, he noticed, that rode up just a little as she slumped down on the couch. He tore his eyes away from her thighs and looked back to her face, realizing that she was wearing some light makeup as well.

“You look nice,” he ventured. Sakura smile thinly, lifting her head to look at him.

“Thanks,” she said. “Ino insisted I dress up for the occasion.”

“Occasion?” Kakashi asked. Sakura raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the chocolates and wine.

“Valentines Day?” she offered at his blank look. Once understanding lit his eyes, he gave a small “ah,” before looking back down at his wine and frowning.

“You’re not missing a hot date to share your ill-begotten goods with me, are you?” he asked, frowning.

Sakura snorted. “You  _ are  _ my hot date, Kakashi,” she said easily, letting her head fall back again.

“Hardly,” he retorted, taking a sip of the wine. He wasn’t a wine person, but this was quite good. He wondered what the gifter would think if he knew she was sharing it with him. He found that the thought caused a thrill of possessive conceit that he quickly squashed down, horrified that Sakura would somehow know what he was thinking; that he was somehow hardly better than the men who showered her with unwarranted chocolates.

That line of thought took him to the idea that maybe he should have gotten her something, but he quickly shook that thought from his head.

“Kakashi?” her voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he refocused to find her having shifted to face him.

“Hmm?”

She was silent for a beat too long, before shaking her head.

“Thanks,” she said, lifting her glass in a toast to him. Somewhat perplexed, he returned it.

Her eyes stayed fixed on his as she took a long sip, and Kakashi felt like she was staring into his soul. For a long second, he was certain that she could see his swirling thoughts, and the mere notion terrified him.

Instead of replying, he pulled his mask down around his neck and took a long sip of wine to distract himself from the widening of her eyes.

He didn’t meet them again as he reached for a chocolate of his own, popping it into his mouth.

She was still staring when he finally had no excuse to not look at her.

Her lips were parted slightly in shock, and her eyes were fixed on his lower face. He gave a sheepish, lopsided grin.

“You’re staring,” he said quietly. Sakura visibly gulped, but her eyes darted back up to meet his.

“Sorry,” she rasped, then swallowed, wet her throat with a sip of wine, and coughed. “Ah, sorry, I just...  _ Kakashi_!” she almost whined. “That’s just... damned unfair,” she said, gesturing towards his face with her wine glass.

“What’s so unfair about it?” he asked, relaxing a little bit, back on familiar ground of teasing her.

“You’re just... You... And I’m not expecting it!”

“What kind of Valentine am I if you can’t even see my face?” he asked. Sakura’s jaw dropped, and Kakashi cursed himself inwardly, unsure of why he said that.

“Shit, Kakashi,” Sakura groaned, leaning back and holding out her now-nearly-empty wine glass. “I need more wine for this,” she added. Kakashi picked up the bottle to oblige and topped up his own glass as well.

Sakura took a sip, stealing another glance out of the corner of her eye.

“Why now?” she finally asked. Kakashi shrugged.

“Why not?” he returned, and Sakura’s eyes narrowed at him.

“You’re being kind of cagey tonight,” she said.

“You’re being kind of pretty tonight.”

Sakura’s eyes widened, and Kakashi took another sip of wine in lieu of cussing out loud to himself. He didn’t mean to say that, but it wasn’t like he’d had enough wine yet to blame it on the alcohol.

“Kakashi, are you...” she started, her lips working prettily over some half-formed syllables that she couldn’t quite get out, a flush welling up on her cheeks that she didn’t have the presence of mind to suppress.

“Am I...?” Kakashi prompted when it seemed like she wasn’t going to be able to get anything out.

“Do you think I’m pretty?” she blurt out.

“I believe I just said as much.”

“No, I mean...”

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

Sakura stared at him, eyes wide, her wine glass tipping dangerously in her slack hands. Kakashi leaned forward, taking the glass from her fingers and setting it, along with his own, on the coffee table. He didn’t lean back to his original spot, hovering perhaps a little anxiously in her space, ready to bolt if she gave any indication of being uncomfortable.

“Are you upset?” he asked softly. She shook her head hastily.

“No! No. Of course not. No, I just...” she trailed off, looking at his lips again. She licked her lips, before her eyes darted up to meet his again. “Kiss me?” she begged quietly, more of a breath than a whisper.

Kakashi surged forward, his lips seeking hers.

Sakura didn’t hesitate to return the kiss, her hands coming up to bury themselves in his hair. Kakashi nipped at her bottom lip, eliciting a surprised squeak, followed by a breathy sigh as she parted her lips just enough for Kakashi to take advantage of them, his mind a whirlwind of insecurities that were stilled by the invitation.

Several long, breathless moments later, they pulled apart. Kakashi’s eyes studied Sakura’s face from the closest vantage point he could remember having. Her long pink lashes were fluttering against her cheeks, and her lips were already the slightest bit puffy.

When her eyes finally fluttered open to meet his, they were the darkest, richest green he had ever seen—which was saying something in Fire Country.

They regarded each other silently for another moment, before Sakura let her eyes drift closed again as she leaned forward, slowly but insistently seeking his lips once more. She leaned towards him, twisting and shifting once her fingers had purchase in his hair, so that her knees bracketed his hips, and she pushed him down along the length of his couch, her lips never breaking from his.

This time, it was Kakashi who whimpered, a noise that startled both of them. Sakura broke away, eyes wide, and Kakashi felt himself blushing in mortification.

“I...” he began, but Sakura’s smirk stopped him.

“What did that?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. Sakura pouted.

“I’ll figure it out, I guess,” she said, swooping back in to reclaim his lips before Kakashi could process the statement.

Hovering over him, her necklace hung down, brushing his collarbones, and he pushed her up.

“Take those off,” he growled, grabbing the beads and tugging lightly.

Sakura frowned, but reached up to pull them over her head. Once off, she held them up and studied them.

“What’s wrong with them?” she asked, turning them this way and that so they caught the light.

“They came from that ridiculous fortune teller,” Kakashi muttered. Sakura met his eyes again, brows furrowed as she piled the beads into her other palm, the soft clicking of the beads against one another loud in the quiet apartment.

“Fortuneteller?” she asked. Kakashi nodded, groaning as he scrubbed one hand over his face. He did  _ not _ want to interrupt what was turning into a  _ very _ nice make-out with memories of that hag.

“She gave them to me and said they would lead me to...” he paused, frowning, realizing before he said it that it could be a very bad thing to say in front of the person that the beads did, in fact, seem to lead to.

“To?”

“Someone,” Kakashi hedged. “And I threw them on the ground and they  _ didn’t fucking move _ until you picked them up weeks later.”

Sakura’s eyebrows flew up, and she looked back at the beads, rolling them in her palms and examining them a little more closely as she hummed, deep in thought even as she straddled him.

After a moment, she slipped them back over her head. Kakashi frowned until she leaned forward again, hovering just far enough above him that the beads brushed his collarbone again. She teasingly swayed so that they dragged across his skin, apparently reveling in the confusion that danced across Kakashi’s bare face.

“Point her out next time we see her, I’d like to thank her,” she said, before reclaiming Kakashi’s lips with her own.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there you have it. Happy Belated Valentines Day! :D
> 
> ~ Lily  
> February 20, 2021


End file.
